27.5.11

Thai Chicken Pizza

It's no secret around here that Brad and I eat a lot of pizza. I tried tons of dough recipes until I settled on one I like, and now we have it at least once every two weeks, if not weekly. It's easy to make, and is one of few meals we eat where all the food groups are involved. Since I'm not a cheese lover (or most dairy for that matter), pizza is one of the only places I get cheese/dairy because I can mask it with all the other flavours and just get a hint of it. Maybe try this method if you have kids who don't like cheese...or other fully-grown adults who are just weird like me :)

My parent's make a Thai Chicken Pizza from one of the Loony Spoons cookbooks, but I couldn't find it online. I did some searching though and Trader Joe's has a good recipe that I adapted. In their recipe, they call for a lot of ingredients pre-made from their amazing grocery store (which I was devastated to find out isn't yet open in Louisville), so I had to do some other searching and adapt a second recipe for the peanut sauce. I found that one on a food blog called All Day I Dream About Food (I do too...).﻿ You could use their recipes and I'm sure they would be really yummy, or follow my adapted one. They're all delicious and a nice new take on traditional pizza.

Sorry for the lack of pictures. I won't blame you if you decide not to even attempt this recipe as a result. I'm the exact same way... Which is why I spend money on cook books. I LOVE looking at beautifully photographed pictures of what I may be about to eat. Especially Martha Stewart or Jamie Oliver, because they often have pictures of the step-by-step too. Or food blogs, because they always have great pictures. Not here, not today, sorry folks!

Thai Chicken Pizza

Dough:

3.5 C flour (I sometimes blend half whole wheat, half all purpose, or 1.5 or each and 1/2 C of ground flax seed, but since I am limited in my baking supplies here, I used good ol' AP flour)

1 TB quick-rise yeast

1 TS salt

1/2 TS sugar

(you can also throw in hot pepper flakes and ground pepper which would be great with this pizza, or on a traditional pizza add Herbs de Provence or others. This is a basic recipe, take it from here wherever you want to go!)

>> whisk dry ingredients together and add 1 1/3 C hot water

>> stir w/ wooden spoon, then form into a ball with floured hands

>> cover until doubles in size or 2 hours is up (whichever happens first)

>> roll out on floured surface and put on a baking pan that's covered with bread crumbs or corn meal (prevents the dough from sticking without adding oil)

Lon, it's true! I love the combo! It's my usual crust which can go either way - to make it thin, simply kneed it more and let it rise for less time. I didn't let it rise the full 2 hours (probably 45 min only) and it turned out quite thick... could also be because the flour was a different brand or because it was humid in the kitchen, who knows, so much thicker than my usual dough, but same recipe!